3D Printing News and Innovation

Bronze 3D printing

From today until the 31st of March you can order your Ringpoems 3D printed in bronze.

Yep, bronze.

You can now make your own bronze sculpture in a few minutes. Your words, thoughts, ideas, poems, declaration of love: in bronze.

Just go to the Ringpoem Creator, type in the words of your choosing, choose a font, then order it for $49 including shipping and tax.

Then you will get your message: 3D printed in bronze.

I know I seem to be repeating myself but: WOW. That is pretty darn amazing right? We can now, for a limited time, let anyone everywhere create a metal 3D printed object that they get to design.

If there is demand for the Ringpoems we will see if we can extend this process to the rest of the models on the site. But, hold your horses because we’re ironing out some kinks with that at the moment. So we can not guarantee that.

So how does it work? An inkjet head deposits binding material on the build tray. The build tray is lowered. A very thin layer of powdered metal is spread over the build platform. In this case the powdered metal used is Stainless Steel. This continues layer by layer until the part is built. Then the part is removed from the metal powder that has not been bound by the binding material. The last step is to heat the part and infuse it with bronze. And presto you have a 3D printed metal part.

The process leaves you with a heavy, stainless steel and reddish bronze Ringpoem. Depending on how long you make your text it will be around 4.5 by 4.5 by 4.5cm and 3mm thick. It feels and looks smooth. It also feels nice and cold to the touch and the material is strong. The process is much much much cheaper than titanium 3D printing. I think its amazing that you can now 3D print in the same material roman swords are made of, the same material that Henry Moore made his sculptures are made of! Enough of this though, I’m going to go make a bronze 3D printed sculpture!!!!

If this is not the coolest thing you have read all day please retweet our message on twitter telling us what you have seen today that is
cooler than our Bronze Ringpoem. If this is the coolest thing you’ve seen all day then please also retweet this message with a comment. The best answer will get a free Bronze Ringpoem of their all time favorite tweet. A twitter tweet 3D printed in bronze!

Hi Jane,
I use the ring poem to put a little light in as a decoration on a cabinet. So napkin ring is not the only option. There must be a lot more possibilities. But I agree, I really like the idea of a bracelet.
Marleen

As a jewelery/ring designer I would love to see this as an option for my own designs. This would save me a lot of steps in getting from design to metal object. At the moment I go from printed model to wax model to silver or gold model.

re: “If there is demand for the Ringpoems we will see if we can extend this process to the rest of the models on the site. ”

Hmm, I should think you would have more possbility of creating and evaluating demand by offering it more widely than through the creator ring-poem. I’m not really interested in a $49 napkin ring But I would be interested in a $50 sculpture.

I immediately assumed these were rings for wearing and thought they would make an incredible alternative wedding ring. Something that meant something to the couple could be used, a poem, the proposal, etc. Seems to me it would be wildly popular.

I just realized too that if these were possible to have made as finger-sized rings to wear I have a large group of people as clients that would love to have meaningful words to them to buy as rings to wear. If you get these to ring size, we should talk about a larger order.